Comparison of spray-dried blood meal and fish by-products in the phase II starter pig diet

A total of 311 weanling pigs (initially 10.9 lb and 17 d of age) was used to compare fish by-products, spray-dried blood meal and combinations of spray-dried blood meal and fish by-products in the phase II (d 7 to 25) diet. Pigs were allotted by weight to one of five experimental treatments with 8 to 11 pigs/pen and seven replications. Pigs were placed on a common phase I diet (d 0 to 7 postweaning) that contained 7.5%spray-dried porcine plasma, 1.75% spray-dried blood meal, and 20% dried whey. The phase I diet was formulated to contain 1.5% lysine, .9% Ca, and .8% P. Pigs were then randomly assigned to one of five dietary treatments. All phase II diets (d 7 to 25 postweaning) contained 10% dried whey and were formulated to contain 1.25% lysine and .36% methionine. The control diet contained 2.5% spray-dried blood meal (SDBM) and 10% dried whey. Select menhaden fish meal (SMFM) and spray-dried fish hydrolysate (SDFH) replaced SDBM on an equal lysine basis at 5% and 4.8%, respectively, and 2.5% SMFM + 1.25% SDBM and 2.0% SDFH + 1.25% SDBM were used in combinations to form the other four dietary treatments. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed efficiency (F/G) were improved with the addition of SDBM in the fIrst week (d 7 to 14) of phase II. No differences were observed in ADG and ADFI for the overall phase II period. Pigs fed SDBM had poorer FIG (d 7 to 25) compared to pigs fed either SMFM or SDFH. However, SDBM was the most cost effective protein source in this experiment.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 199

A combination of spray-dided porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal optimizes starter pig performance

A total of 298 weanling pigs (initially 12.11b and 19 d of age) was used in a 25-\u3c1 growth trial to examine the influence of various combinations of spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) and spray-dried blood meal (SDBM) in a high nutrient density diet on starter pig performance. Pigs were allotted by weight to eight replicates of five treatments with seven to eight pigs per pen. Pigs were assigned to one of five dietary treatments with 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100% of the SDPP replaced with SDBM on an equal lysine basis. Therefore, diets contained 10, 7.5,5.0, 2.5, or 0% SDPP combined with 0, 1.63, 3.25, 4.8, or 6.5% SDBM, respectively. All phase I diets were formulated to contain 20% dried whey, 1.50% lysine, .81% isoleucine, and .37% methionine. These diets were fed from d 0 to 14 postweaning. On d 14, all pigs were switched to a common phase II diet containing 10% dried whey and 2.5% SDBM and was formulated to 1.25% lysine. Pigs were fed this diet for the remainder of the trial (d 14 to 25 postweaning). A quadratic response occurred for average daily gain and feed efficiency during phase I, with pigs fed a combination of spray-dried porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal having superior performance compared to pigs fed diets containing only spray-dried plasma or spray-dried blood. Maximum performance was seen with the combination of 7.5% spray-dried porcine plasma and 1.63% spray-dried blood meal. Therefore, the results of this trial show that phase I diet cost can be reduced and performance improved by formulating the diet with a combination of spray-dried porcine plasma and spray-dried blood meal rather than spray-dried plasma alone.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 199

Treatment with Glucocorticoids or Calcineurin Inhibitors in Primary FSGS

In primary FSGS, calcineurin inhibitors have primarily been studied in patients deemed resistant to glucocorticoid therapy. Few data are available about their use early in the treatment of FSGS. We sought to estimate the association between choice of therapy and ESRD in primary FSGS

Vegetation structure derived from airborne laser scanning to assess species distribution and habitat suitability: The way forward

Ecosystem structure, especially vertical vegetation structure, is one of the six essential biodiversity variable classes and is an important aspect of habitat heterogeneity, affecting species distributions and diversity by providing shelter, foraging, and nesting sites. Point clouds from airborne laser scanning (ALS) can be used to derive such detailed information on vegetation structure. However, public agencies usually only provide digital elevation models, which do not provide information on vertical vegetation structure. Calculating vertical structure variables from ALS point clouds requires extensive data processing and remote sensing skills that most ecologists do not have. However, such information on vegetation structure is extremely valuable for many analyses of habitat use and species distribution. We here propose 10 variables that should be easily accessible to researchers and stakeholders through national data portals. In addition, we argue for a consistent selection of variables and their systematic testing, which would allow for continuous improvement of such a list to keep it up-to-date with the latest evidence. This initiative is particularly needed not only to advance ecological and biodiversity research by providing valuable open datasets but also to guide potential users in the face of increasing availability of global vegetation structure products

LD Hub:a centralized database and web interface to perform LD score regression that maximizes the potential of summary level GWAS data for SNP heritability and genetic correlation analysis

Motivation: LD score regression is a reliable and efficient method of using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary-level results data to estimate the SNP heritability of complex traits and diseases, partition this heritability into functional categories, and estimate the genetic correlation between different phenotypes. Because the method relies on summary level results data, LD score regression is computationally tractable even for very large sample sizes. However, publicly available GWAS summary-level data are typically stored in different databases and have different formats, making it difficult to apply LD score regression to estimate genetic correlations across many different traits simultaneously. Results: In this manuscript, we describe LD Hub - a centralized database of summary-level GWAS results for 173 diseases/traits from different publicly available resources/consortia and a web interface that automates the LD score regression analysis pipeline. To demonstrate functionality and validate our software, we replicated previously reported LD score regression analyses of 49 traits/diseases using LD Hub; and estimated SNP heritability and the genetic correlation across the different phenotypes. We also present new results obtained by uploading a recent atopic dermatitis GWAS meta-analysis to examine the genetic correlation between the condition and other potentially related traits. In response to the growing availability of publicly accessible GWAS summary-level results data, our database and the accompanying web interface will ensure maximal uptake of the LD score regression methodology, provide a useful database for the public dissemination of GWAS results, and provide a method for easily screening hundreds of traits for overlapping genetic aetiologies

Status of the X17 search in Montreal

At the Montreal Tandem accelerator, an experiment is being set up to measure internal pair creation from the decay of nuclear excited states using a multiwire proportional chamber and scintillator bars surrounding it from the DAPHNE experiment. The acceptance covers a solid angle of nearly 4$\pi$. Preamplifiers and the data acquisition hardware have been designed and tested. The water-cooled $^7$LiF target, mounted on an Al foil is in a thin carbon fiber section of the beamline. The experiment will focus at first on a measurement of the internal pair creation from the 18.15 MeV state of $^8$Be. Assuming the ATOMKI evaluation of the electron-pair production rate from X17, a Geant4 simulation predicts observation of a clear signal after about two weeks of data taking with a 2 $\mu$A proton beam. The IPC measurement could eventually be extended to the giant dipole resonance of $^8$Be, as well as to other nuclei, in particular to $^{10}$B.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings contribution, TRIUMF Ariel Workshop, May 25-27 202

Constraints on Low-Mass WIMP Interactions on 19F from PICASSO

Recent results from the PICASSO dark matter search experiment at SNOLAB are reported. These results were obtained using a subset of 10 detectors with a total target mass of 0.72 kg of 19F and an exposure of 114 kgd. The low backgrounds in PICASSO allow recoil energy thresholds as low as 1.7 keV to be obtained which results in an increased sensitivity to interactions from Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with masses below 10 GeV/c^2. No dark matter signal was found. Best exclusion limits in the spin dependent sector were obtained for WIMP masses of 20 GeV/c^2 with a cross section on protons of sigma_p^SD = 0.032 pb (90% C.L.). In the spin independent sector close to the low mass region of 7 GeV/c2 favoured by CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA, cross sections larger than sigma_p^SI = 1.41x10^-4 pb (90% C.L.) are excluded.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.